Wonderland's Truth
by de tournesol amour
Summary: On a trip to London, Addie and her sister, Alice, end up sneaking into an old bookstore. Little does Addie know that her whole world is about to be turned upside down by a mysterious boy and his magical world.
1. Addie and Alice

**Wonderland's Truth**

A twist on _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_

Chapter 1

**Addie & Alice**

The stained glass windows had recently been cleaned so that the light was freely finding the floor and bypassing grime and dust. The young girl traveled through the nave, reaching out to run her fingers over the cathedral pews. While the light was strong, shadows still lingered. These were the kind of shadows that could consume a particular area. One could hide in them, get lost, possibly even be whisked off to another world. The round columns that lined the open space kept the young girl occupied until the tour was over. Her mother and sister must be stricken with grief when they were unable to find her following them. Soon, the families had gathered in the choir area to hear more facts about the cathedral. As if they hadn't heard enough. The young girl sighed and joined her mother's side. Eventually, they were back out on the street. It was hard to eavesdrop on some of the conversations people were having as they walked by and the girl mischievously turned her head to try to get a better listen.

"Addie," he mother called as she held out her hand. London was always gray; she decided she couldn't even imagine living there. It seemed like the most vivid things on the street were her cherry red shirt and the streetlights. Her older sister, Alice, was talking their mother's head off about some shop that she absolutely had to go to.

"It's a little bookstore on the far corner- right by our hotel!" she kept saying, holding her palms up while crushing her dark eyebrows together.

"I believe you, dear. You don't have to repeat yourself, I heard you the first time" Addie didn't understand this about grownups. When one tries to tell an adult something they look like they are ignoring you the first three times you ask, only to say later that they heard you in the first place.

"Then there is a dress shop just down the way and-" Addie wanted desperately to cover her ears; her sister was constantly wanting to buy clothes. She couldn't wait to get home and rip the tags off. Addie turned her nose up at the dresses and little shoes her sister bought. You couldn't move or have fun in dresses.

"You will be able to go everywhere you want to go" her mother interrupted over Alice's loud chattering. They ducked into a little restaurant and were hustled into a booth under a dim light. The seats creaked when they sat down, and Alice hit her elbow as she slid into the free seat next to her mother.

"Ow" she complained and traced her fingers along the sore spot. Her mother shushed her. They sat in silence. Addie lost herself watching all the people rushing in and grabbing seats. She enjoyed taking in the sounds of the restaurant; loud clinking of glasses, swoosh of the kitchen doors, bell sounding above the front entrance of the place. It held her attention; every plate that rode out on the white china smelled delightful, and each receiver of a plate would move all their personal belongings off the table, shuffling their feet in excitement, rolling a napkin out on their laps, and picking up the silver ware, only to finish preparations with a smile or a curt nod to the waiter.

"Addie, what are you ordering?" Alice asked in a snarky tone. Closing her eyes shut tightly, Addie ran her hand over the plastic wrap over the menu and stopped. She quickly opened her eyes and shrugged.

"I'm having Cottage Pie"

"Minced beef, veggies, all topped by mashed potatoes- huh alright and Mum?" ever since Alice had come to England and heard a small boy call his mother, "mum"; she had been all over the nickname. Their mother didn't seem to mind.

"I think I'll have this," she leaned over just a little and pointed to a picture; Addie didn't bother to look. They ate dinner slowly as if to savor every bite. They were in no rush of course; where would they need to be? They had all the time in the world. It was spring vacation and Addie was in no rush to get back to school. After their early lunch, their mother had decided to continue their walk around the city.

Alice squealed upon seeing Big Ben, even though they had seen it countless times since they had arrived. She said it was because she was still in awe of its beauty. Addie shook her head; it was just a big clock; she didn't understand the importance of it. She hid her feelings from her sister because she was sure that she would be put down about the small opinion. Addie was more interested of the guards outside the palace gates.

Their bright outfits stuck out in front of her and their big, fuzzy, dark hats stood tall on their heads. Addie couldn't even imagine how hard it would be standing there unmoving without expression. Once in a while, they were allowed to travel in a box-like walking pattern to awaken their feet. She decided, there, it was a horrible job to have and chased after her mother and sister. The monstrous heels her mother was wearing were finally bothering her, and she suggested that they return to the hotel.

Addie slumped into a large plush green armchair in the corner of the room and closed her eyes, shooing her curls out of her eyes with an exhale of warm air. Her mother was throwing her heels across the room into her suitcase from the queen-sized bed. She picked a glass of water from the side table, gulping back two pills. Alice sat on the edge of her bed, kicking a foot and bobbing her head to music on her cell. She yawned and pulled her ear buds out of her ears.

"Mum, do you think that I could go shopping to kill some time before dinner?" she asked her plump pink bottom lip jutting out. Their mother squeezed the bridge of her nose in distress, sighing, and pulling her short dark hair off her face.

"If you have to," she muttered and closed her eyes, lying back into the fluffy white pillows, "but take your sister with you" Addie sat up and huffed.

"Mom," Alice and Addie whined. Without another world from their mother the two were pushed out onto the street. They hardly looked at each other. Alice pulled at her blue sundress and glanced uncomfortably over at her sister; Addie glanced back. Alice turned suddenly through an open doorway into an awkward store. Addie quickly lost her within the large bookshelves of books. She liked to read but for a reason a book with a thin layer of dust on the cover didn't appeal to her. She found Alice in the back row with a blue book in her hand. She was silently reading and had a small smile on her face.

"Listen to this," Alice said getting into her personal space, ""Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." Alice faltered on her feet; "I love this book" Addie backed up and left her sister still standing in the aisle reading. She went over a few shelves and ran a finger over the binding of a book. Something moved behind her and she peered through the shelves to find herself facing a peculiar boy.

Dressed up in a burgundy corduroy suit, he was nervously clutching at a stack of books. He was mumbling and pulling at his short white hair. He stuffed the books quickly onto the shelves, wiped his sweating forehead, pushed his glasses up on his nose, and drew out a long gold chain with a circular pocket watch from his coat pocket, with W. R. engraved on the front.

"Oh, no," he cried softly and looked around, "Not early," he muttered and grabbed another book, moving it to another shelf, "I'm going to be late." he groaned and stuffed the watch back into his pocket, "so late for this very important date"

"Late for what?" she asked moving a book aside, getting a better view of him. His head snapped up and she met terrified grey eyes. He stumbled out of the shelves and started moving books by the old fashioned register. He disappeared into the back room with another cry,

"So late, late, late" she looked over her shoulder for her sister and followed him hesitantly, succumbing to her curiosity. Her hand gripped the doorframe when she entered the room. He disappeared through a dark green door. She looked at the mysterious door with wonder; the brass doorknob housed many dirty fingerprints and when her little hand closed around it, the knob was cold to the touch. She turned it and, was surprised by the loud creaking as it opened.

She turned around to look for her sister; with no sign of any movement from the other room she hastily closed the door behind her. It was dark, so she fumbled along the wall looking for a light switch. Unable to one, her eyes were forced to adjust. She began to walk slowly, making sure to keep one hand in front of her.


	2. Bookeeper's Hallway

**T****he**** B****ookkeeper****'****s ****H****allway**

Addie found an electric candlestick and smiled. She turned it upside down, clicking the on button. Only one of the fake flames lit and it still wasn't enough to get a good view of the long hallway in front of her. Her brown eyes glanced around, looking at the empty wooden shelves and cabinets. They were all different styles, shapes, and sizes. The hall had a musky smell like an old closet in her grandmother's house. She held up the lamp to the walls, studying the green peeling wallpaper. Flecks of gold made up little stripes and crawled over the paper.

Addie's feet traveled slowly and she clung to the little light she had. "How long does this go on for?" she whispered into the dark. "I feel like I've been walking for hours." The curly blonde stopped, noticing nothing different about her surroundings. "It would be awful to find that I've been walking in circles this whole time." she noted and tried to look at the differences in the cupboards. She finally snatched up a jelly jar off a shelf. Finding the jar empty, she set it back on another shelf she said, "I haven't seen this before. Maybe this proves that I'm not going in circles."

Addie continued walking along, running her hand over a skinny shelf with a doily hanging off. Dust collected on her fingertips. Her mind traveled to the shelves again. "Delilah would love these," she said, glancing up. She thought about how her cat would lie out on the shelving at her house, but there weren't many to choose from. In this hall, whenever she got bored of one, she could move onto another. Addie smiled.

Delilah was a funny kitten. She bit her lip and speculated about how at their house though the cat would use carpeted stairs to help her out, so she would have a hard time getting on the shelves. Addie shrugged, "I wonder what we would say to each other if she were able to talk." She stumbled over her feet, sure that she and Delilah would probably talk about the fuzzy blue cat stairs or her fascination with small boxes. Addie yawned.

If she could talk to her pet, she would understand more about cats than she knew now. "If she could talk would she be also able to read and maybe write? Oh, her paws would get in the way of holding a pencil, but she could certainly read. I wonder what books she would like… oh a light!" She switched her light off and left the candlestick on a long thick shelf. Her olive boots shuffled along the floor.

She reached a room. The length of it was extremely narrow and made her slightly uncomfortable. She just managed to see the highlight of white hair as the young bookkeeper disappeared through another door, a large ring of keys dangling from his hand and his glasses obscured on his face. Yet as soon as he was out of sight, Addie realized there was more than one door on the opposite wall. She was suddenly overwhelmed. She stumbled backwards.

"One, Two, Three, Four, Five…" she counted under her breath. Addie ran straight ahead. She reached out to a skinny door with a fake window in the center. She jiggled the handle, and her face scrunched with surprise. "Locked," she hummed and ran down to the door the boy had entered. She pulled on the handle. It too was locked; she ran down the line of doors, determined to try to open them all.

She huffed and pulled her blonde curls hair back from her face. She turned about the room, thinking and discovering. On one side there was a long pink table and closest to her was a little blue table standing in solitude in the corner. The top of the tall table was glass and there, resting in a layer of filth, was a little silver key on a long green ribbon. She gingerly reached down and snatched it up into her hand. She glanced excitedly at the doors and started over.

She tried to jam the key into every door. Nothing worked. Her last hope was the rounded wooden door. Addie stuffed the key into the doorknob but it was obvious it wasn't going to fit. She pushed it against the gold plated knob until the flecks of gold broke off it from the jagged side of the key. Her anticipation ended in hopelessness as the object landed on the floor with a small clatter.

This key wasn't going to unlock any of these doors. She just wanted to know what was behind them. Was it another world? Another hallway? Where was the white-haired boy going? Brushing her strangling bangs out of her eyes she cautiously turned as if there was another door waiting for her. Instead she found a long dark green curtain hung on the wall. She furrowed her eyebrows with wonder.

"Now when did that get here?" she asked aloud and walked up to it, touching the soft material. She shifted her hands in order to pull in open. Soon the fabric was bombarding her. Everything was this green curtain. Addie pulled at it until it had become so coiled around her legs that she fell straight back onto the ground. Soon she had gotten the thing as far away from her as possible and glanced up and was relieved that the bar hadn't fallen on her also.

As she was preparing to get back onto her feet, her eyes were hooked on a little door on the wall. It was birch wood and stuck out in the brightness. Curious, she held up the key in her hand and weighed it, trying to give it luck. She rolled onto her shins and leaned towards the doorknob. The key fit. She sighed and bit her lip trying to hide her smile. She checked over her shoulder and then unlocked the door. It made a very satisfying clicking sound and she pushed it open with ease.

Behind this little door held brightly colored red mushrooms in a sea of green grass a path ran from the door, it slowly being covered by dry, brown leaves. Her smile grew and she sucked in an excited breath. She laid her hands on ground and pushed back, sliding against the dark wood floor. Getting onto her stomach she was able to see more of the world behind the magical little door. "Why is this so small?" she growled, "Who is this for?" Unfortunately it wasn't made for Addie as was only her arm and shoulder could possibly be able to enter the other world. Frustrated, Addie slammed the door and laid out staring at the ceiling.

She sighed and got up, quickly scouting the room again for any clues on how to get through that door. In the darkened corner, Addie found a bright pink table. It's away from the view because of the weird contents, she decides. Green leaves wrapped around white rice and green celery was in the middle, next to those were brown spiraling skinny legs shooting off a circular meaty center, to Addie it looked like a gigantic fried spider. Yet in the center of the food chaos was a tall skinny bottle with the words "Drink Me" plastered onto it. Suspicious, she picked it up and turned it around in her hand.

"It sure doesn't say its poison," she whispered and looked back at the door. If it got her through it was worth it. She set the key down on the edge of the table and uncorked the bottle slowly, so the recoil of her hand wouldn't hit her in the face. Addie brought the brim to her lips and closed her eyes, taking a few sips of the liquid; she was pleasantly surprised that it tasted like lemonade. The more she drank though, the more uneasy it made her. Her eyes snapped open. In front of her was the bright pink paint of the table leg.

"What…?" she murmured and looked up, seeing the edge of the table and the long green ribbon of the key. Everything about her was small, and she laughed nervously, drinking another swig. Again she watched the individual thick paint become more defined and it wasn't for the better. She was now the size of the black caps on the bottom of each table leg. Her hand was out of reach of the key's string even if she jumped. Angry with herself, she sat down heavily and tossed the bottle away from her. It rolled out of sight behind her, but she didn't care. Setting her head on her Khaki covered knees. She let out a strangled cry.

"Don't cry," she scolded herself and wiped under her eyes. Looking over her knees, she spied a bowl in front of her. It was a little bigger than she was and when she got close enough she realized that it was a cinnamon roll. Delighted, she ran over to look into the bowl completely. On the brim of the bowl the words "Eat Me" were written all the way around it. She beamed, pulling all her tears away from her eyes.

Her tiny hands pulled off bites of a good chunk of the roll. She closed her eyes again and chewed at the soft bun until it had all disappeared. She reopened her eyes and realized much to her dismay that she was the same size as when she started. She stomped away from the table entirely and found the bottle smashing it into the ground with her frustrated growl.


	3. Sizeable Tears

**S****izeable ****T****ears**

She pulled the bowl from under the table. She chewed at the cinnamon roll quickly and pulled it apart with her little hands. It became increasingly difficult as her hands and body grew at an overwhelming rate. She squealed and dropped the bread, squishing her fingers into the sticky frosting. She couldn't help but duck her head as the ceiling approached. She hoped the ceiling would stunt the growth as well. It did not, and Addie found herself hunched against the ceiling looking down to the floor. Her hand could maybe fit through the little door, but she could hardly manage a crouch.

She began to cry and didn't try to wipe away the tears. She let them roll down her cheeks and drop onto the floor below. Their size was obvious as they collected into a little pool at her feet. Movement took her thoughts away from the door as the boy joined her in the room again, muttering. She tried to make out what he was saying by leaning closer, but this did little good. To her advantage, the boy spoke louder as he bustled about the room.

"Oh, that Duchess," he said, his nose twitching and his eyes wide and darting around the room. "Don't want to keep her waiting."

"Excuse me!" she called down to him but he didn't hear her. She tried again, "Excuse me- I really must speak with you."

Again he didn't acknowledge her. He disappeared from the room, leaving her alone. In his wake he left a tattered, worn gold scarf and a dark colored book. She picked up the book cautiously with two fingers and opened the front cover, fanning herself. As she closed her eyes, she absorbed the cool air on her face. Her mind wandered.

"It's hard, trying to be someone you're not," Addie said out loud and shifted her feet. "And at this moment I feel more different than I have ever felt before." She bit her lip and shook her head.

"It's not a good feeling at all." she sighed, "If I'm not Addie- who am I?" she wondered and threw her head back in thought; "I sure know more than any other person" she smiled and thought about school and the things they had recently learned.

"Who else could tell you that the Indian Ocean is right off the coast of Florida?" she giggled and stopped, "No that's not right." she sighed and tried again, "Or that an example of a simple machine is a-" she stopped and held her head, "I don't know- I don't know." she cried. If she was unable to recall anything that she had learned she must be someone different.

"Possibly Lucy," she nodded, no matter how many times the girl tries to learn something; she never remembered it the next day. Addie yawned and her eyes fluttered. She realized that she was shrinking, her hand gripping around the book easily. She was able to shrink down to an appropriate size to fit through the garden door. She reached out to the doorknob but as it was turning, it faltered and stopped. She had forgotten the key again as it loomed lonely above her out of reach.

"No," she whined. She stomped one foot and the change of weight on her feet sent her sprawling back. Unable to stop herself, she fell into a deep pool of water. Her mouth filled with salt.

She swam up toward the surface, coughing as she brought air to her pleading lungs. She was swimming in her own tears! Addie looked behind her for the shore and became face to face with a rat. His small, beady, red eyes starred back at her and blinked. Frightened, she pushed the water towards him, screaming.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he said turning his face away from her, "watch it." He scrambled away from the waves.

"You talk!" she cried.

"Of course." he said annoyed, "Every thing can talk. Except plants, they're worthless."

"I wonder if my cat, Delilah, can talk" Addie wondered. The rat bristled at the question and narrowed his eyes.

"I don't talk about cats."

"Oh, why? They're great," She continued with a smile.

"No really- I don't like to talk about cats." He said bitterly.

"What about dogs- do they talk?"

"Once again, everything talks but the plants" he said in a bored tone, "Let's not talk about dogs either."

"What do you have against dogs?" she asked, "Sure cats can eat you and such, but what did a dog ever do to you?"

The rat took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead with a black paw. "It's a very long and sad tale," said the rat.

"It is a very long tail." Addie laughed, watching his tail move in the water, "but what does that have to do with your hatred of dogs?"

He looked over at her in question. "I'll tell you- here follow me the shore" And they swam on.

"Why is it a sad tail?" she asked him with wonder.

"Oh you know," he said and sucked in a breath, "Sparky was a dog, who said to me, when I had stumbled upon his house, 'Let's go to the law. I prosecute you- come and take no denial'."

Addie with a confused glance began to zone out. This was not explaining his sad tail; he must have misunderstood her question. Instead she watched her arms push through the tears of the lake. When Addie looked up, she noticed other animals joining them. A Duck with a green head was first; he nodded to her as he passed. The Duck looked and leaned around her to listen to the rat's story, which Addie still ignored.

Next, a brightly, colored bird paddled by. It resembled a mythical creature, she had seen in a book. She remembered its name, a Dodo. She grinned at him and he gave her a funny look and snapped his beak in her face a few times with echoing clicks.

An Eaglet and a Lony came together heads bowed in deep conversation, but hushed to hear to the end of the rat's story. The six of them climbed onto shore with lost expressions on their faces. They gathered together in a circle, eyes darting to each other, daring someone to talk. Finally, the rat looked over at Addie with interest. "What did you think of the story?"

"Oh. It was interesting," she said, waving her hand dismissively.

"She didn't listen" the Lony said and rolled his eyes, "She was too busy fawning over the Dodo's feathers"

"That's not true!" Addie protested, "I did listen."

"No I know when someone isn't listening to me" the Lony snapped, "for I am older than you."

Addie stared at the bird, trying to determine his age in his wide angry eyes. She concluded that she didn't know how old he really was. "Did you?" the rat asked his eyes wide and pleading.

"I tried," she confessed, "It was so hard to understand your tail."

The rat huffed and got up. "Fine, since you didn't pay attention to that story, then I must tell another!" the rat declared and the other animals leaned forward in anticipation. Addie almost leaned back.

"Are we up for a story?" she asked around and they sent her curious glances. "We are very wet and uncomfortable," she said, noticing the drenched wings and dripping beaks of her new acquaintances.

"This story will dry you." the rat said. Addie was skeptical.


End file.
